How Noam Bramson Was Hired as Sustainable Westchester Executive Director Part I

Part I in a 4-Part Series

DUBLIN, IRELAND (July 29, 2024) — This is the story, broken into four parts, of how Noam Bramson came to be offered the position of Executive Director of Sustainable Westchester on May 3, 2023, despite being significantly under-qualified for the position based on key criteria in the job description posted by the organization on January 5, 2023.

Part I of this series is an Introduction and Overview and is available for free to subscribers and the public. Part II covers 2014–2021, the period during which Mayor Bramson was boosting Sustainable Westchester in every conceivable way, including casting illegal votes while sitting on the Board of Sustainable Westchester. Part III covers 2022–2024, when there was an overlap of the Criminal Investigation of Bramson by the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office and the Sustainable Westchester search for a new Executive Director. Parts II and III are limited to paid subscribers. Part IV, available exclusively to Premium subscribers, is about the decision to offer Bramson the ED position and the contract negotiations that led to an executed Employment Agreement.

The interview scoring matrix (above) is broken into four sections, each with subsections.

A. INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE

• Sustainability
• Nonprofit
• Government
• Private Sector

B. EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP

• Organization Leadership
• Staff Management Hiring
• Partnership/Relationship Building
• Communication/Public Speaking Skills

C. SW & COMMUNITY KNOWLEDGE

• Familiarity with SW programs and mission
• Familiarity with Westchester Communities/Leaders
• Relationships with Key Stakeholders' Watched/Joined 2023 Annual Meeting

D. FISCAL OVERSIGHT

• Budgeting & Reporting
• Development/Grants

As of March 8, 2023, at 2:30 pm, when Bramson was interviewed by the Search Committee, he had spent his entire career working exclusively in the Public Sector; not a single day working for a Nonprofit, in the Private Sector or in the Sustainability or Renewable Energy field. As a Councilmember, then “weak” Mayor, in a Council-Manager form of government, Bramson had no executive responsibility; zero experience managing staff, hiring or firing employees, leading an organization, creating budgets, fiscal management, financial reporting or grant writing — all among the job requirements.

Bramson met just half of the requirements: government sector experience, partnership/relationship building, communication/public speaking skills, familiarity with Sustainable Westchester programs and its mission, familiarity with Westchester communities and leaders, relationships with key stakeholders, and participating in the 2023 Annual Meeting.

Despite meeting so few of the job requirements, an acknowledged awareness of a potential negative reaction to the announcement of his hiring, his demanding a salary tens of thousands of dollars above the range listed in the job posting, and seeking (and getting) a $65,000 signing bonus including money for a new electric vehicle, five of six members of the Sustainable Westchester Executive Director Search Committer ranked Bramson #1 out of the 8 finalists. One search committee member objected to the initially proposed compensation package (Joan Grengenois-Thomas) saying she was “disappointed” with Bramson’s money grab, and one unidentified committee member (Joan Grengenois-Thomas?) did not rank Bramson as their first choice.

The only way it is possible that committee members ranked Bramson #1 was to fluff up his scores on the evaluation matrix used by the committee to rank candidates such as giving him the maximum points allowed for criteria where he should have gotten none: private sector experience, running a non-profit or HR management. I know for sure this happened, as you will see, I just do not know the extent of the fluffing that occurred.

The Board of Directors voted unanimously to hire Bramson on May 23, 2023.

The creation of the Sustainable Westchester Search Committee, and Bramson’s pursuit of the Executive Director position overlaps with the criminal investigation of Bramson by the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office launched after the New Rochelle Board of Ethics sustained my allegations the Bramson broke the law by attempting to pressure the New Rochelle City Manager to both appoint Bramson as Development Commissioner and remove Kathleen Gill as Deputy City Manager (both Charter violations).

Things became especially frenetic between October 25, 2022, when Nina Orville unexpectedly resigned as Executive Director, and January 5, 2023, when Sustainable Westchester went public with their search for her replacement. Bramson abruptly announced he would not seek re-election just days after a key ally (Sara Kaye) was put on the ED Search Committee and days before the DA issued a rare “not indicting” press release to disclose Bramson had been under criminal investigation for six months but claimed the evidence to support criminal charges was “legally insufficient”. The investigation was declared “ended” just days before Sustainable Westchester went public with the job posting for a new Executive Director, clearing the way for Bramson to apply for the job without a possible Criminal Indictment hanging over his head.

This series is based on my past reporting on Noam Bramson, New Rochelle and Sustainable Westchester and a significant number of internal Sustainable Westchester documents I obtained over the past year. I expect the level of detail, including internal and confidential Sustainable Westchester records, will come as quite a shock to the crew operating Sustainable Westchester. Their next board meeting should be quite interesting.

Before I get into the details in Parts II, III, and IV, I want to point out a few things to set the stage and give readers the broader narrative.

Noam Bramson was the most unethical person ever elected to office in the City of New Rochelle. This is not my opinion but a fact. He is the only Mayor in the history of New Rochelle to be found guilty in an ethics investigation. He was found guilty twice, once in June 2022 (charter violations), and again in December 2023 (conflict of interest violations). Yadira Ramos-Herbert was also guilty in two ethics investigations, once in April 2024 (conflict of interest violations) and June 2024 (charter violations) but was given a pass by a thoroughly corrupt ethics board.

Bramson will do and say anything to further his interest, including lying under oath. His entire career is marked by plotting and scheming and sock-puppetry. I have plenty of his emails where he is telling other people you do this or say that, and then I will do this or, I will say that.

Even when being straight with people or the public might be the better course for him, he habitually defaults to underhanded and duplicitous tactics. When caught in his web of lies, he plays the victim, pretending to be offended but really just angry to have been caught out.

Sara Goddard, a past and current Rye City Councilmember, was, along with Noam Bramson, a founding Board Member of Sustainable Westchester. Goddard, like Bramson, is currently under investigation by the New York State Department of Public Service for casting illegal votes to benefit Sustainable Westchester while holding elective office without disclosing her interest in Sustainable Westchester. Goddard and Bramson have known each other for decades.

Sara Kaye, a past and current New Rochelle City Councilmember, was, along with Noam Bramson, found guilty of ethics violations in December 2023 for casting illegal votes to benefit Sustainable Westchester while holding elective office without disclosing her interest in Sustainable Westchester. Kaye, like Goddard and Bramson, is under investigation by the New York State Department of Public Services. Kaye holds the District 5 seat on city council once held by Noam Bramson. She has a well-documented history of relying on Bramson to make even the most mundane of decisions, and was always a reliable Bramson vote on council. She opened herself up to perjury charges in her sworn testimony in a deposition taken as part of the ethics investigation on the sustained charges that Bramson violated the City Charter by pressuring then-City Manager Charles B. Strome to appoint him Development Commissioner, another position for which Bramson was not qualified, based on the job requirements in the City Charter.

Kaye was elected to the Board of Directors of Sustainable Westchester on May 18, 2021. Bramson was directly involved in Kaye’s application to join the board. There is no “New Rochelle seat” per se but for all intents and purposes, Kaye replaced Bramson on the board; there is no “Sive, Paget, & Riesel P.C.” seat on the board either but in 2023 SPR Associate Dane Warren similarly replaced SPR Partner Dan Chorost, like Bramson, a founding board member.

Goddard was elected by the board, with Bramson’s support, as co-Chair of the Board of Directors of Sustainable Westchester in January 2022, a decision formalized at the February 16, 2022, Annual Meeting.

On September 12, 2022, Kaye was asked by Chorost to join the Sustainable Westchester board’s Recruitment Committee, which seeks and recommends new board members.

On October 25, 2022, Nina Orville unexpectedly resigned, submitting her resignation letter as Executive Director of Sustainable Westchester to Co-Chairs Sara Goddard and Jim Kuster.

On November 15, 2022, Sara Goddard offered, and Sara Kaye accepted, an invitation to join a 4-person Search Committee to identify and recommend a new Executive Director.

The search committee was initially comprised of Co-Chair Sara Goddard, Sara Kaye, Jason Baker and June Wallach with Co-Chair Jim Kuster as an ex-officio voting member.

Jason Baker is the Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Public Works of the City of Yonkers. Mayor Mike Spano was another founding member of the Sustainable Westchester Board of Directors. Baker previously served as the City of Yonkers Director of Sustainability.

June Wallach is a marketing executive and member of the Town of Mamaroneck Sustainability Collaborative. Mamaroneck Town Supervisor Nancy Seligson was another founding member of the Sustainable Westchester Board of Directors and past Co-Chair of the board.

On January 17, 2023, Joan Grangenois-Thomas joined the search committee to make it a 5-person committee, and Jason Baker became its chair.

Joan Grangenois-Thomas is a public relations executive and a Trustee in the Village of Port Chester. She was until recently the District Director for U.S. House of Representatives Mondaire Jones.

Based on their photographs or my direct knowledge, Goddard, Kaye, Baker, Wallach, and Kuster are or appear to be White. Grangenois-Thomas appears to be Black.

There is no record of any concerns among the board that all the initial members of the search committee were White or that there was a perceived need to add a Black committee member for appearance’s sake. I believe the people involved with Sustainable Westchester, almost exclusively if not entirely politically liberal, would be deeply offended at the suggestion that race was a factor in adding Grangenois-Thomas, the only non-White member of the board available to add.

Sustainable Westchester was, by design or not, a racially exclusive “club” from the moment the organization was created. Based on a 2014 photograph and listing of names and my direct knowledge, all 12 founding members of the Sustainable Westchester board were White or appear to be White, and it was not until 2021–7 years later — that the board added its first POC member (Grangenois-Thomas). In 2022 and 2023, the board added more people of color: Ken Jenkins, Mohit Chandra, Julie Chang, Shawn Patterson-Howard, Su-Fern Tan, Vennela Yadhati, and Anilla Cherian, but the board was always, and ten years on is still, majority White (10 of 17 board seats).

The Co-Chairs of the Board of Directors have always been and still are White: Mike Gordon, Chris Burdick, Laura Rossi, Nancy Seligson, Sara Goddard, and Jim Kuster.

The Executive Directors have always been and still are White: Robert Elliot, Steven Rosenthal (Interim), Nina Orville, Jim Kuster (Interim), and Noam Bramson.

The Director of Westchester Power is White: Dan Welsh.

The Chair of the Search Committee was White: Jason Baker.

The Search Committee began work on November 18 by circulating and reviewing the Executive Director Job Description used two years earlier to hire Nina Orville. Over the next 6 weeks, the committee members recommended edits to the document.

On November 21, 2022, Bramson announced he would not seek re-election.

On December 19, 2022, Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Roach announced she would not pursue criminal charges against Bramson claiming, in a press release, “there is legally insufficient evidence to support criminal charges”. Bramson chose to portray the press release as an exoneration but legally insufficient evidence is a term of art used by prosecutors to say there was evidence to support criminal charges.

The press release is extraordinarily unusual. I recently asked the DA’s Office how often Rocah issued a press release about not charging someone? I will update this article with their response.

UPDATE 2024-0820: Was the Bramson Press Release Issued by the Westchester DA “extraordinarily unusual”?

That said, no investigator is likely to find much evidence if they do not interview any witnesses. The witness list from the ethics investigation included City Manager Charles B. Strome, Mayor Noam Bramson, Corporation Counsel and Deputy City Manager Kathleen Gill, Human Resources Commissioner Robert Yamuder, Development Commissioner Adam Salgado, all 6 District Council representatives — Martha Lopez, Albert Tarantino, Yadira Ramos-Herbert, Ivar Hyden, Sara Kaye, Elizabeth Fried, and Monroe College President Marc Jerome, in his capacity as Chairman of the Board of the New Rochelle Downtown Business Improvement District.

As this was my investigation and my complaint long before the DA got involved, I know more about it than anyone, including that prosecutors never questioned a single witness in the case despite numerous, obvious lies and contradictions in their testimony, especially by Noam Bramson, Sara Kaye and Yadira Ramos-Herbert, which I thoroughly documented.

On January 5, 2023, the Executive Director Job Description was made final and published to several recruitment websites. Four months later, Noam Bramson was offered the position. He settled for a base salary of $185,000 and a performance bonus of up to 25% ($46,250). He also got a signing bonus and consulting agreement worth $65,500.

This series is a deep dive into the inner workings of the Sustainable Westchester Executive Director Search Committee, which I have broken up into four parts to be released in installments.

Part I: Introduction and Overview (Free)

Part II: Mayor Bramson Champions Sustainable Westchester as Board Member 2014–2021 (paid subscribers only)

Part III: Overlap Between Criminal Investigation of Bramson and Job Search (paid subscribers only)

Part IV: Getting to an Executed Employment Agreement 2023 (premium subscribers only)